After years of tweaking and refining my development setup, I've finally organized everything into a single dotfiles repository. This post walks through the tools I use daily and how they're configured.

dotfiles

Why Dotfiles?

Configuration files (dotfiles) define your development environment. By version controlling them, you can:

Sync across machines - Same setup on your work and personal computer
Recover quickly - Reinstall everything after a crash or new machine
Track experiments - Roll back when something breaks

I manage my dotfiles with GNU Stow - check out that post for the details.

The Stack

Here's what my setup includes:

Neovim - Primary code editor
tmux - Terminal multiplexer
Kitty/Ghostty - Terminal emulators
yabai + skhd - Keyboard-driven window management
Zsh + Oh My Zsh - Shell environment

Shell Configuration

My .zshrc is kept minimal. Here are the key parts:

# Theme
ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell"

# Plugins
plugins=(git zsh-autosuggestions)

# Editor
if [[ -n $SSH_CONNECTION ]]; then
  export EDITOR='vim'
else
  export EDITOR='nvim'
fi

# Alias vim to nvim
alias vim="nvim"

I use Oh My Zsh with just two plugins:

git for git aliases and prompt info
zsh-autosuggestions for fish-like command suggestions

The rest handles version managers: NVM for Node.js, RVM for Ruby, and Mise for other tools.

Neovim

Neovim is where I spend most of my coding time. My config uses Lua and includes:

LSP support for multiple languages
Telescope for fuzzy finding
Treesitter for syntax highlighting
Custom keybindings for efficiency

The config lives in ~/.config/nvim/ and is structured for easy maintenance. Check out my detailed Neovim post for the full breakdown.

Terminal: Kitty & Ghostty

I've used Kitty for years and recently started experimenting with Ghostty. Both configs include:

Custom color schemes with dark/light theme switching
Font configuration optimized for coding
Keyboard shortcuts for splits and tabs

The theme switching is handled through symlinks - theme.conf points to either dark-theme.auto.conf or light-theme.auto.conf.

Window Management: yabai + skhd

On macOS, yabai handles automatic window tiling while skhd provides system-wide hotkeys. This is part of my keyboard-driven workflow.

Common shortcuts I use:

# Focus windows
alt - h : yabai -m window --focus west
alt - l : yabai -m window --focus east
alt - j : yabai -m window --focus south
alt - k : yabai -m window --focus north

# Move windows
shift + alt - h : yabai -m window --swap west
shift + alt - l : yabai -m window --swap east

This vim-like navigation makes managing windows feel natural.

tmux

For terminal session management, tmux is essential. My config includes:

Vim-style pane navigation
Mouse support enabled
Custom status bar
Sensible prefix key remapping

Repository Structure

dotfiles/
├── .zshrc
├── .config/
│   ├── nvim/
│   ├── kitty/
│   ├── ghostty/
│   ├── tmux/
│   ├── yabai/
│   └── skhd/
├── vscode/
└── zed/

Each tool's configuration is self-contained, making it easy to stow individual packages.

Getting Started

To use these dotfiles:

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/daze17/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles

# Install GNU Stow
brew install stow

# Stow individual packages
cd ~/dotfiles
stow nvim
stow tmux
stow kitty

# Or stow everything
stow */

Final Thoughts

A well-organized dotfiles repo is an investment that pays off every time you set up a new machine or recover from a crash. Start simple - even tracking just your .zshrc and editor config is valuable.

Feel free to explore my dotfiles for ideas. The best dotfiles are the ones you understand and actively maintain.

My Dotfiles